Neo-Nazi trial will not bring justice, says Turkish Deputy PM

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

File photo of Ismail Yozgat crying in front of a memorial to his son Halit Yozgat, who was killed by the National Socialist Underground (NSU) during a ceremony in Kassel April 6, 2013. REUTERS photo

The neo-Nazi murder trial in Germany does not have any significance anymore for Turkey since the result is pre-determined, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ has said.

“The ruling of Munich State High Court will have no significance from now on for me,” Bozdağ told Anatolia news agency. “The court has not started the trial yet. But this is a court that ended the trial even before it started.” Germany’ highest court postponed the start of the trial early this week after announcing an overhaul of disputed rules on media access.
 
Proceedings were to have begun on April 17 against a woman accused of being part of a far-right killer cell blamed for 10 murders. But after Germany’s top court ordered the Munich judges last week to expand foreign media access to the trial, its starting date had to be put back, in a move victims groups called a “catastrophe.” Hearings are now to begin on May 6, the court said.

‘Court chief lost neutrality’

Beate Zschaepe, believed to be the last surviving member of a gang known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU) accused of killing eight Turks, a Greek man and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, is to stand trial with four alleged accomplices.

Bozdağ stressed that there is an atmosphere that the trial is all made up of ‘completing routines.’

“Court chief has lost his neutrality. You cannot expect a justice from a trial whose head lost his neutrality. This trial is over for us, we are waiting the result as a mere formality.”